


Nightmare

by parisique



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Alternate Universe, Chat Blanc - Freeform, Chloé Bourgeois Redemption, Evil Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir, Gen, sorry if this makes you cry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-06
Updated: 2020-04-06
Packaged: 2021-03-02 02:00:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 5
Words: 2,814
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23517322
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/parisique/pseuds/parisique
Summary: Gabriel finds out Adrien is Chat Noir and uses it to give Ladybug an ultimatum: trade your miraculous for Chat Noir's life.
Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug
Kudos: 53





	1. In which the nightmare begins

It was rare for Gabriel Agreste to call anyone into his private office, save for his assistant, Nathalie. It was even rarer for him to call his son into his private office.

So, when Adrien was told that his father wanted to see him, he was understandably nervous. He felt like a thousand akumas were somersaulting around in his stomach as he followed Nathalie across the marble tiles of the foyer. Her heels _click-clack_ ed as she led him to the doors that hid, or perhaps separated, Gabriel Agreste from the world.

“Enter.” His father’s voice, as detached as it had been for over a year now, rang out as Adrien knocked on the door. Gabriel was standing at his monitor, tapping away at the screen.

“Adrien,” he addressed his son, his cold eyes piercing Adrien like an X-ray. “Come here.”

Adrien stepped closer, clutching the strap of his school bag.

“Let me see your hand.”

Adrien’s blood ran cold.

It ran colder still when he saw his mother - his bright, lovely, missing-for-over-a-year mother - lying motionless in a glass coffin.

“What have you done?” The words slipped from between his lips as he sank to the floor. From behind him, his father stepped closer.

“Join me, Adrien, and we can bring her back. Using your miraculous and Ladybug’s, we can awaken your mother again!”

**[0]**

Adrien wasn’t in school the next day. Adrien was _never_ absent.

Marinette frowned, worried, and asked Nino, who said he hadn’t heard from Adrien since two days ago.

 _Maybe he had to leave for a secret photoshoot_ , Marinette reasoned. _Maybe he suddenly got so sick he had to be rushed to the hospital without his phone. Maybe he broke his phone while fencing, or got arthritis and can’t type, or he lost his phone in a freak accident._

Speaking of mysteriously absent people, Chat Noir hadn’t shown up for patrol last night, either.

Before she could dwell on it for too long, Miss Bustier walked into class and the bell rang.

**[0]**

“Ladybug.”

Alya gasped and grabbed for her phone, not taking her eyes off the fluttering mass of dark butterflies forming the shape of a man’s head on the Eiffel Tower. A direct message from Hawkmoth himself was going on the Ladyblog for sure!

“If you want to see Chat Noir alive again, meet me at the Eiffel Tower at sundown tomorrow. In exchange for your miraculous, I’ll spare his life. This is your only chance.”


	2. In which the nightmare spreads to our heroes

_ As I am sure you have heard by now, we have lost an essential member of our team. Today is the final fight, and we are going to  _ _ win _ _. Meet me at the Trocadero at 3. Be ready. _

_ \- Ladybug _

“Trixx, let’s pounce!”

“Wayzz, shell on!”

“Pollen, buzz on!”

“Sass, scales slither!”

**[0]**

“Gabriel, are you sure this is wise?” Nathalie stood next to him as Hawkmoth faced his window, butterflies fluttering around him.

With a smirk, he turned to look at the bruised and bloodied, but ever-resilient, Chat Blanc.

“Oh, I’m sure of everything. Soon, I will have both the Ladybug and Black Cat Miraculous, and I will have the ultimate power.”

“And you’re sure that -”

“I have told you,” Gabriel said, smacking his stick against the floor to punctuate his point, “that miraculous is too dangerous - I forbid it from being used, and you will never find it!” His voice softened as he turned and put a hand on Nathalie’s shoulder. “Just stay here, until I come back.”

Then he turned to Chat Blanc. “Come along.”

**[0]**

“Okay,” Rena Rouge said, turning to peer over the wall they were hiding behind to check if Hawkmoth had made an appearance or not.

The mayor had ordered a lockdown for all citizens, so they were alone. She, Carapace, Chlo-Queen Bee, and Viperion had met up, per Ladybug’s instructions, and were hiding in the Trocadero. The superheroine had yet to show up, and with their second-in-command otherwise incarcerated, she supposed she was next in line.

“What’s the plan?” Viperion asked, getting his Second Chance ready.

“Oh my god,” Chloé gasped, and they all turned to see -

It was an army. A legitimate army of dark shadows, all with the same butterfly over their eyes to show Hawkmoth’s control, marching towards the Eiffel Tower.

Rena cursed under her breath - of  _ course  _ Hawkmoth would use the fear and uncertainty running rampant all over Paris to his advantage. And now he had a goddamn army. And he had akumatized Chat Noir. And Ladybug was missing.  _ Great. _

“Okay,” Rena said, turning back to the team, who, in comparison to what they had just seen, suddenly looked very, very … small. And weak. “Okay, here’s the plan. Ladybug’s not here, Chat Noir is … also not here, but we can do this. We’re going to charge at them - we can take them down, we’ve been training for this. Viperion, stay back and use your Second Chance to analyze the fight and make a plan on how to best defeat them. Queen Bee, save your venom to use it on Hawkmoth. Carapace, save Shellter for when we get closer to Hawkmoth. If you want out, now’s the time to back down, but if you’re in, get on board. Are you ready?”

Carapace nodded solemnly, as did Queen Bee and Viperion.

“Ready as we’ll ever be,” Queen Bee declared, glancing at Hawkmoth’s shadow army. 

**[0]**

“Are you quite sure you can do this?” Master Fu frowned at the sword on the table.

Ladybug looked at it, too, her eyes dark. “It’s our only guarantee,” she said.

“It’s dangerous,” Master Fu replied. “There is a reason I have been reluctant to use it all this time. Separating a kwami from it’s Miraculous can have dire consequences. I know you are strong, Marinette, but in the wrong hands ...” He trailed off, remembering the past.

Ladybug rose to her feet. “Master, I have faith in the others. Together, we can do this - we’re as ready as we’ll ever be.”

Fu nodded. “Yes. I trust you. I believe in you.”

Ladybug nodded back, taking the sword off the table. “I’ll be back, Master,” she told him as she swung out.

“I hope so,” the old man whispered softly, watching her fading figure.

**[0]**

“For Paris!”

As Hawkmoth’s army marched onto the bridge, Rena Rouge led the attack. The superheroes raced towards the army, taking down row after row of akumas and releasing a stream of dark butterflies into the air.

They had come to the end of the battle, when one last akuma lunged onto Queen Bee’s back, reaching for her miraculous.

The others were too far away to help, and too late to see.

With a cry, the akuma fell back as Ladybug swung in and sent him flying. All around them, the dark butterflies were replaced by a swarm of white ones as Ladybug purified them all at once.

On top of the Eiffel Tower, Hawkmoth was grinning maliciously, his hand on the shoulder of … an akumatized Chat Noir.

_ I’m as ready as I’ll ever be. _


	3. In which the nightmare becomes hell

It was over before they even had a chance.

They had scaled the Eiffel Tower to the viewing platform, where Hawkmoth and Chat Noir - she refused to call him Chat Blanc - were waiting. She’d called her Lucky Charm, received a rose, and drew a blank. Then Hawkmoth charged - or rather, Chat did.

They had tried to hold him off for as long as possible. “Hurry,” Chloé had called as he batted her aside like a fly. “Hurry, Ladybug!”

His eyes were completely wrong, she had thought to herself as he snarled down at her. His eyes were glowing a hostile lilac, and then -

They had gathered around her, Rena, Carapace, Queen Bee, and Viperion. Trying to protect her.

Chat held the sword in his hands, his movements almost robotic. Like he was being controlled ( _because he was_ , her mind whispered. _Shut up_ , she thought to herself. _Hurry, Ladybug_ , Chloé’s words echoed in her brain).

Viperion stepped forward first, when Chat - Hawkmoth - made no move. Like a snake poised to strike, and then he struck.

But Chat - _Hawkmoth_ \- was faster. Silver steel glinted as it sliced through air, flesh, drew blood, severed deep magic. They all felt it, the magic. Only Luka felt the sword.

They had disposed of him and the sword, and now only Rena, Carapace, and Queen Bee stood between Ladybug and Chat. Between Ladybug and Hawkmoth.

She wouldn’t let that happen. So she stepped forwards, pushing her team (minus one, now minus two - _please, please let there be no more_ ) behind her. Stepping towards Chat as he stepped towards her, too.

And she still couldn’t think of anything to do ( _Hurry, Ladybug!_ ) so she stepped closer and offered her luck to him, her Chat -

And he - no, not him, never him, not her Chat - blasted them backwards with the force of a thousand suns, a thousand Cataclysms, a thousand punches in the gut.

And without Carapace’s Shellter or Viperion’s Second Chance (oh god, Luka), they had fallen down, down, down …


	4. In which someone wakes up

Her head hurt. And also her arm.

Blinking her eyes open, Marinette saw, past the cut on her sleeve, past Chat standing in the middle of the bridge, on top of the Eiffel Tower - wait. Her sleeve. Her sleeve?!

Sitting up so fast made her head hurt more. Her scrapes stung - they must be bleeding. Her eyes pricked with tears as she stared at Hawkmoth, standing on the Eiffel Tower, radiating smugness and victory, and Chat. Her Chat Noir, but not. So very, very not, with his aggressive stance and those glowing lilac eyes and his ears standing straight on his head.

Ears … Tikki!

Marinette looked around to see her kwami lying motionless a few feet away. She reached out, scooping the little red being into her palms gently. She was still alive, thank God - she stirred a little as Marinette held her against her chest, tears now running rivers down her cheeks.

Around her, Carapace was helping Rena Rouge sit up as Queen Bee massaged her head. Marinette cradled Tikki in her lap. So they had lost, then? After all this work, after everything they had been through, they had lost? After all the faith and trust everyone put on her shoulders, she had let them down?

_We can’t lose hope - people are relying on us._

_You and me against the world, m’Lady._

She set Tikki back down on the pavement. She deserved to rest.

On weak knees, she stood. Sure, her pants were ripped, she was missing a shoe, and one of her sleeves had been torn off. But she was still Ladybug, mask or not. She was still a leader. A savior. A superhero. And nothing could change that.

Rena and Carapace looked up from checking each other’s wounds as she walked by. Queen Bee sat up straighter at the sight of her.

Bruised, bloodied, battered. Beaten. Marinette. Ladybug.

Step after step, she approached. Chat wasn’t moving, but his hands - both of them - were sparking with his Cataclysm, the wrong, glowing one.

Then the butterfly appeared over his eyes and he, too, began stepping forward.

Behind her, she could hear Rena’s cries.

_You and me against the world, m’Lady._

They met in the middle.

His face was contorted into an unfamiliar scowl as he sneered down at her. No, not him - never him. Never her Kitty. Never her Chat.

They moved at the same time, her palm pressing against his cheek before moving into his hair.

Chat stilled at the touch.

The glow from his eyes was almost too much to look at, but she did - just before closing her own and pressing her lips to his.

_Remember. Please, please remember. Come back to me._

“You and me against the world, Chaton,” she whispered as they shared the same breath. She didn’t open her eyes just yet. She was too scared to look.

“M … Mar … Marinette?”


	5. In which the nightmare ends horrifically

Later, news reports would say that, if you zoomed in on the footage as far as you could go, the girl smiled at the evil Chat Blanc after she had kissed him. And after that, his eyes had gone back to being normal, human eyes.

And then he had reached up - towards his head, maybe, or towards hers - before Cataclysming that poor girl.

Or trying to, because it was then that Chloé Bourgeois had come running, flying, almost, and grabbed the girl’s ears - no, her earrings, and dragging the girl backwards, screaming something incoherent as Chat Blanc seemed to fight some internal struggle.

And then the girl was screaming back, saying “Go,” and “Run,” and then by some miracle, Chloé only just managed to get away as Chat Blanc pounced - 

Only the bravest few were able to watch what happened next. Because that time, the second time, he got her.

And Chloé Bourgeois - Queen Bee, sorry - in all the chaos, had grabbed Rena Rouge and Carapace as she ran by and they stared, frozen, and stopped to scoop something - a rock, maybe? - off the ground, before running away.

Nadja Chamack just barely choked the words out before she nearly collapsed, and she had to be helped off the platform.

**[0]**

It was terrible.

It seemed half of Paris had turned up for it - the whole school was there, and that weird brother of Juleka’s, the one that … Chloé didn’t have the energy to come with an insult, even a half-hearted one.

The memorial - because of course it was a memorial, without the body (oh God, the body ...) - for Ladybug, for Marinette Dupain-Cheng, was the most terrible thing Chloé Bourgeois had ever seen in her entire life. And she had seen some pretty terrible things.

Her parents had handed her the letter - because of course Marinette had left a letter, just in case (and the just in case, the insurance, was … Chloé didn’t want to think about it) - and she spent the walk to the address she had left in silence, save for her own thoughts.

_Marinette Dupain-Cheng was Ladybug. She had been Ladybug this whole time. Because of course it was Marinette Dupain-Cheng, thoughtful, hard-working, righteous, helpful, kind, caring Marinette, who was Ladybug. Chloé’s idol. Paris’s superhero._

When she got there, an old man answered the door. He had eyed the comb in her hair before telling her to come in, and then, before he could say anything else, Chloé had demanded it from him.

“Give me the Ladybug miraculous.”

“She said she would come back,” the old guy had said. “She said ...”

“She said a lot of things,” Chloé replied, hating the past tense. “But now ...” _But now she’s gone forever._ “But now isn’t the time for this,” she chose to say instead, pressing the tears back down. “I have to do something. I have to … I need … Give me the Ladybug miraculous.” Her voice was hard.

The old guy looked at her again, and he must have seen something in her, because he went over to his gramophone and pushed some buttons and then he finally gave the earrings to her.

She put them on immediately, and the little red kwami looked at her and exchanged a glance with the old guy, who sighed.

“I have made a lot of mistakes in my lifetime,” the old dude said. “I would have preferred for things not to end like this ...”

“Well, they did,” Chloé snapped, and when the old guy flinched a little she tried to soften her words. “They did end up like this, and now the rest of us have the choice of doing nothing, or doing the next right thing.”

Leaving the man to do whatever it was he had been doing before she arrived, Chloé headed for the Trocadero. Even if no one else did, she would do the next right thing.

Not because she had no other choice - but because she owed it to Ladybug. To Marinette Dupain-Cheng.

“Go,” Marinette had screamed, “Run!”

Chat Blanc was still on the Eiffel Tower. After Cataclysming Ladybug - Marinette - he seemed to snap out of _something_ and had gone for Hawkmoth. And after that, no one wanted to go anywhere near him. So he was still on the Eiffel Tower.

_Ladybug is Marinette Dupain-Cheng._

_Marinette Dupain-Cheng is Ladybug._

No, wait - _was_. God. Chloé thought back to all the late-night rooftop conversations she’d shared with Ladybug. There weren’t that many, but there were a few. And all the times she’d interacted with Marinette. All the mean things she’d said, and all the horrible things she’d done, and - God.

Well, she thought to herself as she looked down at the two kwamis in her cupped palms, she might be too late to make it alright, but she could move forward and do the next right thing.

Never mind it was all she could bear to do.

“Pollen, buzz on … Pollen, Tikki, unify.”

She had work to do.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! As always, comments and constructive crit are welcome.
> 
> Inspiration on this work came from:
> 
> [cocowa, Ready as I’ll Ever Be | Miraculous Ladybug Animatic](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MSfHvjeAyIk)  
> [Art of Rhues, Who You Are - Miraculous Ladybug Fan animatic ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2Fe1lesqUM)  
> [The Next Right Thing || Miraculous Ladybug ANIMATIC || Ella Cinders ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKlbN6TjER4)


End file.
